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It’s been so long since the last time I’ve written a post for this blog. It’s sad that we haven’t had any news related to the Dissidia series until now. Today isn’t definitive news, but it is more of a beacon of hope for those of us looking to have more Dissidia games in the future.

In an interview with Japanese Magazines, one of the developers who were on the teams for both the Dissidia and Theatrhythm games spoke that he wished to make another Dissidia game. Not only did he want to, but many others from the Dissidia team have also stated that they want to make another game. He said the following:

“I want to make a new Dissidia, and we intend to do so. The people who’ve worked on the previous titles have also stated their desire to make a new one, too,”

He also made mention of the importance of both the Dissidia and Theatrhythm franchises. While Dissidia served as a big shout-out for the 20th Anniversary of the Final Fantasy series, they stated that it was also to serve as a way to introduce Final Fantasy to the newer generation of gamers, showing them characters from games too old for many gamers to have played before. Very true. I have been gaming for 20 years, but the original Final Fantasy released before I was even born.

I know this blog entry is incredibly late, but better late than never, I’d say. I wanted to end up making an article about Dissidia 012’s performance on the PlayStation Vita sooner, but as circumstances were with my life, I didn’t really have the money to buy a Vita when it had first come out. Anyways, I just got a Vita recently and got to testing out my favorite PSP game. So, I have some impressions now on getting the game and DLC to work on the system, and to compare it to how it runs on the PSP.

First of all is getting the game onto the Vita system. It’s a fairly simple process, though it’s a bit trickier, if you want all of your DLC. The game appears on the Vita’s version of the PlayStation Store. You can get online, buy it, and then download it to your Vita’s memory card, so long as you have enough memory. Then, you just have to find the game in Live Area, the Vita’s ‘home’ screen.

If you want DLC, though, it’s not that simple. You cannot download DLC for PSP games via PS Store for the Vita. You have to use the PS3 Workaround method for that. What this means is that you need a PS3 system. Many games that aren’t compatible with the Vita’s PS Store are compatible through this workaround method. Basically, download your DLC, one at a time, to your PS3 system. Then, plug the Vita into your PS3 via USB Cable.

Use Content Manager on your Vita, which requires that your PS3 be connected to PSN, to find the DLC on your PS3 and copy it onto your Vita, which will just add the DLC files to your Dissidia 012 file on the Vita. I’m not sure why you can’t download DLC from the Vita Store, but for right now, you just can’t. You have to use the PS3 Workaround.

Once you have the game on the Vita system, it’s smooth sailing to get it to work. You’ll get a little “app” bubble for the game, just like a Vita or PS1 game, and you go to open it up. It opens and loads, just like it does on the PSP, and the controls are mapped in the same location.

As far as load times are concerned, they’re mostly the same as they were with the PSN version, running from a PSP Go or a Memory Stick. The only noticeable difference is getting to the title screen. While it takes about 35-40 seconds to get to it on a PSP system, it takes about 15 seconds to get there with the Vita.

The first thing you might need is your save data, if you’ve played the game on PSP, beforehand. In order to get this onto the Vita, you need to transfer your save data from your PSP to your PS3, and then use Content Manager to transfer that same save data from the PS3 to your Vita. I’m sure some of you have long save files that you wouldn’t wish to start over with once you get the game onto your Vita.

I’ll go into your options next. Basically, you can do everything here that you could on the PSP, plus a few more things. By holding against the front touch screen while the game is up, you’re given your Emulation Options. You have a few things in here, including Bilinear Filtering, Right Stick, Color Space (PSP), and Assign Touchscreen, Bilinear Filtering is the Vita utilizing it’s OLED Screen to enhance the picture of PSP games. It brightens colors and smooths out a lot of jagged edges, making the game look a bit crisper and cleaner.

Right Stick lets you map controls to the right analog stick. You can set either the Analog Nub, D-Pad, Right and Left on the D-pad, Up and Down on the D-pad, face buttons, L and R, or Select and Start to the Right Stick. The most-used option, especially in this game, is mapping the D-Pad to the right analog stick. This lets you control the camera during battle with the right analog stick, which feels more comfortable and on par with console games with controllable cameras.

Color Space (PSP System) returns the visual of the game to how it looked on the PSP system. This is mainly for people who don’t want to use the filtering and want to see the game, as it did on it’s original system.

Assign Touchscreen is a new feature, with the Vita’s 1.80 Firmware Update. It allows you to assign buttons to each corner of the touchscreen, so you can use it and the buttons for play with PSP games. You can assign the corners to any of the buttons, except for the Analog Nub and the L/R buttons.

The game looks are subject between various people. Since the Vita’s screen is bigger than that of a PSP, many say it looks stretched and blocky. However, with the Bilinear Filtering in play, it does look stretched, but a lot of the character models look very smooth and nice. Not all of the jagged edges are gone, though. There are still some jaggeds with Terra and Lightning’s skin. Overall, though, the game looks a lot better.

Playing the Vita definitely feels a little different than the PSP, since the buttons are smaller and in different locations. But, once you get used to the feel of the system, it gets really easy. What I can tell you, though, is that switching from a Vita to, say, a PSP 3000 or PSP Go, feels weird, because of the weight and shape of the different systems.

Even though the Vita doesn’t create it’s own Dissidia 012 folder in the Pictures section, you can still do screenshots from replays. They are automatically added to the Screenshots folder in the Vita’s Photo App. The only downside is that bilinear filtering is not put into play with the screens. They save in the PSP’s original resolution.

All in all, it’s the same game we all love, but looking a little crisper on the Vita’s OLED screen. It’s a hassle to get DLC on the game, and you can’t get DLC on it without a PS3, but if you can manage to get your game and save data onto your Vita, it adds a very fun game to your Live Area screen that will add many, many hours of fun.

Just as a side note, for those FF fans out there, PSP or Vita, you will soon be able to play Final Fantasies I-IX all on the Vita and PSP system soon. Final Fantasy III recently came out on PSP, as a PSN-only release. Using the PS3 Workaround (or just Download List as of next week or so), you can put Final Fantasy Origins, III, IV Complete, VI, VII, VIII, and IX on the Vita. You can include V if you use a PSP, but Vita’s can’t support FFV yet, outside of the EU regions. Counting the upcoming Final Fantasy X HD that is set for PS3 and Vita, FF fans can soon experience the first ten main series games, along with Dissidia 012 and Tactics on their Vitas.

That’s all I’ve got for now. I hope for new Dissidia news soon!
~Trent~

I’m back, people! It’s been months since we’ve gotten any updates! I have one for you today that I am sure some of you will be quite happy with.

The launch of the PSP’s successor, the PlayStation Vita, is just around the corner, and there are going to be over 200 PSP Titles ready to be downloaded and used via the system’s “PSP Emulator”, which is similar to how the PSP plays PS1 Classics.

Among these titles are, of course, everyone’s favorite RPG/Fighter franchise, Dissidia! Included in the list isn’t just Dissidia 012, though. They’ve done much more than that. As far as Dissidia goes, the following downloadable PSP Dissidia games will function on the system:

To celebrate the summer (or the end of summer), Amazon.com has decided to throw a big sale on handheld games. The sale started yesterday, and sparked a lot of price drops for the sale. You can now grab games like Kingdom Hearts Re: Coded, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, Lord of Arcana, and others for under $20 a piece.

Among the sales is Dissidia 012: Final Fantasy, on sale for $19.99, as opposed to Amazon’s original price of $27.98. This is a great deal for this game, though it’s not the cheapest deal in this summer sale.

If you still haven’t bought Dissidia 012, get it while it’s on sale. I know I’ll be taking advantage of Amazon’s sale for a few games I’ve had my eyes on.

How would you all like to play Dissidia 012 on a PlayStation 3? I’m sure many of you would love the opportunity to play it on a home console, rather than a PSP, or a simulated Home Console experience through a PSP’s Video-Out option. Well, you may get your chance.

A Famitsu poll just brought back the results of what PSP games readers would most like to be among the “PSP Remasters” games, which are PSP games remastered and upgraded for release on the PS3 system.

Andriasang brought back the results of the poll, and the following were the top 5 choices of all PSP games:

As you can see, Dissidia 012 is Famitsu/Famitsu.com’s readers’ number 3 choice for a PSP title to hit the Remaster list. Let’s hope that Square Enix sees this and lets it (and maybe one or both of the other two Square titles in that list) come in and port to the PS3.

Time for some more Dissidia 012 news. This news is for PS3 users. concerning Avatars, the custom image you use for your PlayStation Network account.

Over the past several weeks, character portraits from Dissidia 012 have been uploading to PSN for purchase on the PS3 Storefront. Now, thanks to Final Fantasy Net, we know that they are nearing completion.

According to their site, the US PSN has now uploaded all of the characters for Dissidia 012 except for Cloud Strife and Zidane Tribal. Each avatar costs $0.49. Anyone with a PS3, you can now enjoy Dissidia characters on your profile.

Well, it’s July 19th, the day Square Enix promised that the US PSN Store would be getting some more DLC for Dissidia 012. S-E made good on their promise as the store updated about 2 hours ago and the DLC is, indeed, there. Updated are the following:

Now that the US is all caught up with the other regions (other than the Gilgamesh costume), it is hopeful to have some more DLC announced soon! Also, if any of you are fans of strategy RPGs, Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions was added to PSN tonight for $9.99, which may be a sign that some other Square PSP games may be headed towards PSN (like Crisis Core: FFVII or Final Fantasy I and II Anniversary Editions).

On the topic of reviews, I realized that I had a review written on the game for over 3 months now. It’s not a great review, but it did win one of the “Review of the Month” awards on GameFAQs back in April. The review is positive and you can read it here or at the following link:

Another great game in Square’s 2011 PSP Lineup – 8/10
2011 seems to be Square’s year for the PSP. Xenogears, Vagrant Story, Parasite Eve, and Legend of Mana have released as PS1 Classics and for PSP Hardware, there’s Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Final Mix (JP), Lord of Arcana, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, The 3rd Birthday, Final Fantasy IV: Complete Collection, and Dissidia 012.

Dissidia 012: Final Fantasy (also called Duodecim, which is Latin for “twelve”) is Square’s pre-sequel to 2009’s RPG-fighter crossover, Dissidia: Final Fantasy, which took 22 characters from the Final Fantasy universe and threw them into a 3D Action RPG-like Fighting Game. 012 takes what the original started and adds a lot onto it. Fans of the original and of the FF franchise will have plenty to do with 012.

Story – 7.5/10

If you’ve played the original, you know that the story revolves around a world that goes through constant cycles of war between two deities: Cosmos, the Goddess of Harmony and Chaos, God of Discord, who summon legendary warriors to do their bidding. The original game’s story had 10 heroes, 10 villains, and showcased storylines for each hero, guiding them to a crystal containing the power to fight against the God of Discord.

The original’s story took place in the 13th cycle of war between the two deities, and 012 chronicles the 12th cycle. Adding onto the already sizable roster are 6 new heroes. To balance this out, three old heroes are now on the side of Chaos: Terra Branford, Cloud Strife, and Tidus. 012 mainly focuses on the journeys of the 6 new characters.

Apart from the 012 scenario, the game also includes two unlockable scenarios. The first of these is Cycle 013, a remake of the original’s storyline, and a new scenario called “Confessions of the Creator”, which outlines events that happen after the 21st cycle. As you progress through these, you also unlock Reports, which contain more cutscenes and battle scenarios throughout the entire saga. With all of this, it can easily take you 40-50 hours to complete all of the story segments of this game.

It is well known that the story of the original game was not as accepted as the stories of other Final Fantasy games. While 012’s story is not great, it is a step up from the original. Many of the characters are personifications of how they were in their original games, rather than broken down to a cliché, as most of the characters were in the original. Some of them even have their memories from their original worlds.

I give Story a 7.5 for improving on the original, but still not living up to the legendary name of “Final Fantasy”.

Gameplay – 9/10

Gameplay of Dissidia 012 is mostly the same as the original. You are still running around in sizable 3D arenas, going at it mano-a-mano with an opponent. You still have all of your RPG elements, like leveling up, equipping abilities, and synthesizing equipment to power up your characters. However, 012 has added a sizable amount of twists and turns to make things more interesting.

The one big thing the game adds to the mix is variety. The 9 new characters (6 for the story, 3 unlockable) offer very diverse playstyles. You go from Lightning’s Paradigm Shifts to a barrage of bullets from Laguna’s machine gun. Not one of the new characters plays anything like any of the others.

Along with these characters, there have been 7 new stages added to the game, showcasing locations such as the Phantom Train from FFVI and Empyreal Paradox from FFXI: Chains of Promathia.

As with most Fighting Game sequels, several tweaks and additions were made to the abilities of the original 22 characters. Almost every character gained at least one new attack, and every character had some changes made to some of their existing attacks. Most notable is that Shantotto and Emperor are much more formidable than before.

The most notable addition is called the “Assist System”. You can equip an Assist Character to the character you’re fighting with and you gain Assist energy as you attack your opponent. Once half the Assist bar is full, you can summon your Assist Character to attack your opponent. This makes battle a lot more interesting. Not only do you have to worry about what you’re opponent is doing, but also have to be on the lookout for assist attacks that come out of nowhere.

Story progression has also seen some changes. The Destiny Odyssey “chess board” gameplay has been tweaked so that it progresses much faster. Apart from that, you have an entire Overworld Map to explore in true RPG fashion, which is sure to bring nostalgia to fans of the franchise. On this map (which is based on the Final Fantasy I world map), you can run around to collect treasure chests, attack orbs to gain skills, and have random encounters with enemies.

The world map is where the new “Party System” is utilized. In certain scenarios, you make a party of 5 characters and all explore the map together. When in battle, you can fight with all 5 party members. If someone gets KO’d, the next member can resume the battle for them. When you win fights in “Party Mode”, all 5 characters gain experience. It’s literally like training 5 characters at once.

Also on the world map are gateways, which you must unlock to proceed further through the world map. Unlocking these gateways takes you to a Destiny Board. Upon clearing the board, you earn KP (used to buy Equipment, Summons, and Skills from Moogle Shops) and are returned to the overworld to explore more of the map. This new gameplay is also present in the revamped 013 scenario.

I will also talk quickly about new gameplay modes for the game. In Battle Mode, you have 2 versions of Quick Battle, 1-on-1 and Party Battle. Both of these are customizable battles with opponents, except Party Battle consists of using a 5-member party against a 5-member party.

Arcade Mode is still here from the original game, and the Duel Colosseum has been transformed into Labyrinth, which has you fighting battles and exploring a huge Labyrinth, where you can enter and exit as you wish. You can also set up cottages or tents so you don’t lose some of the items you gain here.

Lastly is one major thing the original game did not have: Downloadable Content (DLC). Square has promised a boatload of DLC for this game, which consists of new costumes and music tracks. They have promised at least one costume for each characters, and have started sending out 3-track music packs for each game.

Graphics – 8/10

The visual presentation of this game is nothing new. The engine that was used in the first game is recycled for this game. There’s nothing wrong with recycling the engine, though, as that engine is one of the most impressive engines on the PSP.

The engine really showcases it’s capabilities when you are seeing multiple characters on screen. Magic attacks look flashy and lag is basically nonexistent. You can have two Yunas fighting, each with two summons out and an assist character out (8 characters on screen at one time) without having the PSP blow up. That in itself is an impressive accomplishment.

I gave Graphics an 8. It may be a recycled engine, but it has truly impressive limitations, as shown in the game.

Presentation/Sound – 8/10

As far as audio goes, if you didn’t like the voice-acting in the original, you probably won’t be too fond of voice acting in this game either. The new characters have returning voice actors, like Liam O Brien for Kain Highwind. As a whole, all of the new voice-actors do a decent job at their character roles, with the better ones as returning roles, rather than giving voice-acting to characters who didn’t have it before.

Music reception is kind of hit-and-miss. There are plenty of new remixes of songs in this, including Esper Battle from FFXII, Force Your Way from FFVIII, and Castle Pandemonium from FFII. With these remixes, you’ll most likely either love them or hate them. One thing is for certain, though. There is a lot of new music.

On top of the music tracks from the first game, there are new dungeon themes and 2 new battle songs for each of the 13 represented games, not to mention the possibility of 39 more tracks if you include DLC from each game. To put it at it’s simplest form, the soundtrack has easily doubled in size.

I give Sound an 8/10. Not all of the remixes are well-liked, but the sheer amount of new music, as well as DLC music is quite impressive.

Multiplayer – 8/10

Multiplayer for the original game was local only and consisted of fighting other people and gaining their Friend Cards, so you could fight their Ghost character to practice and gain their equipment and accessories through Item Drops.

012 still has this and adds more onto it. First of all, it is still local only, so we don’t have traditional online multiplayer. However, you can import Friend Card save data from your Memory Stick, so all you have to do is get your friend to upload his/her friend card to the internet. After that, you can download it, import it, and fight their ghost. This is a handy trick for those who do not have the means to get online with the game through Ad Hoc Party or Xlink Kai.

The biggest improvement for multiplayer, however, is Quest Creation. This feature lets you create customized 5-battle quests, with the use of story events that are written by you as well as the use of Player Icons unlocked as you play the game.

The ability to create customized Quests aka Fanfics is a great addition to the game, but only has one downside for North American and European players. Square did not set up a server web site for players to upload these quests online for other players to download, like they did in Japan.

Why did they not give US/EU players access to this feature? We don’t know. I’ve sent many emails to Square Enix Support about this, but have yet to receive a reply. The good news is you can save the quests and upload them to the Internet the same way you can with a Friend Card, enabling Quest sharing through organized fan-run networks.

Multiplayer gets an 8 for the improvements on the current multiplayer system and the inclusion of Quest Creation.

Conclusion – 8.5/10

Dissidia 012 takes the original and more than doubles the amount of content. With 9 new characters, 7 new stages, and many new gameplay modes, there is always something new to do. More RPG-like than the original was, this game appeals more to RPG fans than fighting fans. However, gamers of all varieties will likely get many hours of fun from this game, while Dissidia veterans can expect hundreds of hours.

About

My name is Trent Berlinger, and a big fan of the Final Fantasy franchise. I’ve been following Dissidia ever since Square-Enix announced it back in Spring 2007, so I’ve decided to make a blog with updates for the game and the possibility of a sequel